Metro: Last Light locks FOV, forces aim assist, lets you fix some of these things

While Metro: Last Light has mostly stayed on the right side of our PC porting guide - it's well optimised, offers rebindable controls and, most importantly, doesn't use the mutant abomination known as Games for Windows Live - the folks at PC Gaming Wiki have found some creak in its otherwise sturdily developed tunnels. And while many of the potential issues have a (relatively) simple .ini fix, others - like the locked FOV limit - are a hazard the game forces you to survive.

The Wiki's Port Report guide notes that the game's vertical FOV is locked at around 45 (equivalent to around 70 horizontal FOV on a 1920x1080 monitor). Deep Silver's brand manager Huw Beynon explained the thinking behind this to NeoGAF . "The main reason for maintaining a fixed FOV is because we have 3D elements like the watch and weapon ammo that need to remain visible."

"In addition, all the game's first-person cut scenes and cinematics and each and every animation involving Artyom's hands - idle weapon animations, reloads, ladder climbing, melee attacks etc, - were created assuming the same, fixed field of view. Changing the FOV would break all the cut-scenes and animations - you would be able to see inside Artyom's arms, or they would appear to float in the air in front of you. Or worse."

Despite this, Beynon says possible solutions are being worked on. In the short term, this will mean an update that will allow players to configure the FOV through the game's .cfg file. He warns that this might cause "a number of issues".

For some of the other complaints, fixes already exist. For instance: aiming assist is turned on by default. To disable it, head to:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\4A Games\Metro LL\

Open the file "user.cfg", find the line "aim_assist 1", and change it to "aim_assist 0". Simple enough, although you'll also need to change the .cfg file to read-only, in order to stop the game from stubbornly reverting to its preferred set-up.

A selection of other tweaks are available through user.cfg, including DirectX version control and finer audio settings. Head to PC Gaming Wiki's Last Light page for details on what to change.

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.